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Felt; Hat.

No. 227,044. Patented April' 27, 1880-.

@itmsses ATTOKNEYL PETERS, PHOTO-UTHDGRAPHE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT S. NIOKERSON, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO NIOKERSON & BROTHER, OF SAME PLACE.

FELT HAT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,044, dated April 27, 1880.

Application filed March 6, 1880. (Model) To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ROBERT S. NIcKERsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Felt Hats, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification and accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a front view, partly cutaway, of a hat embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical section in line at m, Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

Felt hats as now constructed are stiffened I 5 with shellac, &c., which causes the felt to break and rot and gum 01 show the color of the gum, which objectionable features are remedied by my invention, which consists in forming the body of the hat of two pieces of felt, and furthermore in inter-posing between the two pieces of felt at the brim portion a stiffener of gossamer.

Referring to the drawings, A represents the body of the hat, and B the brim thereof.

The body A is formed of two pieces, a a, of felt, and the brim is similarly constructed, as at b I), and has between the two pieces a stiffener, G, of gossamer, which extends partly into the body between the two pieces a a thereof.

One of the pieces, a, is placed on a properlyshaped block and its outer surface coated with a suitable size. The stiffener G is then located on what will be the brim and band portions of the hat and sized, and the piece a is placed 3 5 over the piecea and stiffener, and the whole properly worked or shaped on the block and finished.

It will be seen that Iavoid the employment of shellac, which is worked into the felt for stiffening purposes. Shellac by its brittleness and component parts serves to break the felt when the hat is pressed in, and also rots said material, and as the hat wears the shellac is exposed, producing what is known as gummingfiorthe appearance of white or discolored spots and places. 5 These defects do not exist in a hat constructed according to my invention, since the shellac is avoided, and there is a double thickness of felt, which increases the wear of the hat and provides for the body the necessary stiffness and stability.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A felt hat having'its body and brim composed of an outer thickness, a b, and an inner thickness, a b, with an interposed layer ofstiffenin g material, (3, which strengthens said brim and the lower part of said body, obviating the need for shellac.

2. The method of manufacturing felt hats consisting in inserting an annular piece of stiffening material between two layers of felt at the lower part of the hatblank, then bending the triple thickness thus formed on a hatblock, so as to give the rim its proper shape, substantially as set forth.

ROBERT S. NIOKERSON.

lVitnesses:

JOHN A. WIEDERSHEIM, W. L. ANDREWS. 

